I have a follower. I'm touched.
Christmas has been and gone and so has my last shift at work of 2009. It was a little bit terrible, was offered sex by an older man, which I had to respectfully turn down, on the grounds that I'm straight. Christmas itself was also Not That Great, for the following reasons:
The family's all split up nicely what with a feud between my mum and aunt which leads to them not being able to coexist in the same room. The same is the case with my aunt and uncle. It was also the first Christmas ever without my Grandad so that managed to loom over us. We went to my Dad's house for it and he cooked a great lunch, which was steak and vegetables. Fuck you, tradition. It was absolutely delicious.
There was a great deal of awkwardness between my Mum's husband and my Dad and no presents besides lots of chocolate being handed around, which probably made it all a lot more bearable.
When Doctor Who finished Xmas was basically over, so we came home and I spent the rest of the day in bed gorging myself on chocolate and watching episodes of Dexter, which I've become utterly obsessed with, even if the third series is a pile of shit so far.
I have a wee choice for NYE, I can either go to a crappy club with one person I know, spend it with Liz's friends in London or go to Lichfield with Liz and Ellie. I am unsure which option to pick.
Anyway, I don't have much more to say at all really, so I'll leave you with Johnny Cash – 25 Minutes To Go - Live,
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Icy football and foreign beer
I'm going to give up on updating every day. My life just isn't exciting enough.
Back to London yesterday which was generally enjoyable, with a shift at work. It was Members' Night, by far the busiest night of the year, and all the mentals were in tow. I shan't go on about it too much because you really have to experience it to understand it, but despite the level of complete lunacy at the club, it's a job I'm going to be sad to stop whenever I do.
Today I woke up bright and early and put on shorts, jeans, two t-shirts and a Brentford football shirt. Then a hoodie. It was time to go and play football with people from the internet. Slipping along the pavement towards the station I looked like Pingu on E or something, but I managed to get there eventually. Predictably the tubes were being crap due to coldness on the line, and I go to Baker Street Wetherspoon's at about fifteen seconds past twelve, meaning I couldn't have the customary pre-match fry-up. Fucking gutted. Had shitty ham, egg and chips instead.
People trickled in and we found a nice full size pitch with goal posts. Stripped down to my shirt and shorts, put my boots on and began to run about desperately trying not to die of frostbite. The game ended up being Nathan, Toby, Salim, Robbie, Rich and myself against Farhan, Carl, Pat, Ian, Femi and The Question (whose name I have no idea). It started very defensively with no goals in the first twenty minutes, a first for a football meet. Perhaps because it was pretty much impossible to kick the ball. Then two French guys turned up and joined a side each. We got the one who liked to run about a lot. He was wearing a Beckham shirt and was about an inch tall. Farhan's team got the more skilful guy who was so French he probably shat frogs. 1-0 to them v. soon. Then a whole bunch of other people came along. We had no idea who they were but they played for about forty seconds till the police turfed us off the pitch. We were allowed to use the pitch as long as we didn't make use of the goals. Because that makes sense in terms of what's going to become more damaged... so the six new randoms left leaving the French dudes and we relocated, at which point I decided to move to attack as there was no one there bar Nathan. We went 3-1 up, I'm going to take credit for one assist, one interception and one nicely thought out move that I had no part in but saw all the moves for.
Fucked about a bit. Stayed 3-1 for ages as our defence martialled by Robbie was excellent. Then it was 4-3 to us and things fell apart a bit, probably because we got bored of standing still in the freezing cold, and the defenders drifted a bit. Glen, Chris and some Asian dude named after the singer Beck rolled up. Farhan got Beck, we got the internet contingent. 5-5. 5-6. 6-6. Stayed six all forever, when Zak came along and joined them as well.
Our defence stopped bothering because defending is dull in these sorts of games, so I ran about hacking the shit out of everything that moved, meaning I have a bloodied leg atm. Still put it out for half a million throw ins and corners though, and chested one of the corners perfectly into the path of The Question to let him score.
Soon went 6-9 down and Farhan called for half-time. Twat. Ian called him up on this and we soon trotted off to Spoons for refreshments.
Kopi turned up which was excellent and we had foreign beers, including one served in a Buddha. She and I lost a fortune on the quiz machine, but felt quite proud of ourselves for answering all but the Very Important Question correctly in each game.
Most of the internet then left the pub and we were left with Sophie, Nathan, Question, Samina, Carl, Toby and myself. Chatted about various fascinating things. Eventually everyone fucked off leaving Sophie and me alone to miss the last train from Earl's Court to Richmond/Ealing Broadway and help some French people get to their hotel. Bus to Hammersmith. Got food. Kicked about a bit. Missed a few more buses. She got hers eventually and I found out about twenty minutes later I had no credit on my Oyster for mine. Sent plaintive texts out and Sophie called to keep me company for a bit of the walk home. She'd got home in seconds flat, it seemed. Home an hour later.
Now in bed cuddling up to a friendly bout of cramp. <3
Oh, and song of the day: Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name. Why not mark the day the campaign beat the X-Factor to Xmas #1?
Back to London yesterday which was generally enjoyable, with a shift at work. It was Members' Night, by far the busiest night of the year, and all the mentals were in tow. I shan't go on about it too much because you really have to experience it to understand it, but despite the level of complete lunacy at the club, it's a job I'm going to be sad to stop whenever I do.
Today I woke up bright and early and put on shorts, jeans, two t-shirts and a Brentford football shirt. Then a hoodie. It was time to go and play football with people from the internet. Slipping along the pavement towards the station I looked like Pingu on E or something, but I managed to get there eventually. Predictably the tubes were being crap due to coldness on the line, and I go to Baker Street Wetherspoon's at about fifteen seconds past twelve, meaning I couldn't have the customary pre-match fry-up. Fucking gutted. Had shitty ham, egg and chips instead.
People trickled in and we found a nice full size pitch with goal posts. Stripped down to my shirt and shorts, put my boots on and began to run about desperately trying not to die of frostbite. The game ended up being Nathan, Toby, Salim, Robbie, Rich and myself against Farhan, Carl, Pat, Ian, Femi and The Question (whose name I have no idea). It started very defensively with no goals in the first twenty minutes, a first for a football meet. Perhaps because it was pretty much impossible to kick the ball. Then two French guys turned up and joined a side each. We got the one who liked to run about a lot. He was wearing a Beckham shirt and was about an inch tall. Farhan's team got the more skilful guy who was so French he probably shat frogs. 1-0 to them v. soon. Then a whole bunch of other people came along. We had no idea who they were but they played for about forty seconds till the police turfed us off the pitch. We were allowed to use the pitch as long as we didn't make use of the goals. Because that makes sense in terms of what's going to become more damaged... so the six new randoms left leaving the French dudes and we relocated, at which point I decided to move to attack as there was no one there bar Nathan. We went 3-1 up, I'm going to take credit for one assist, one interception and one nicely thought out move that I had no part in but saw all the moves for.
Fucked about a bit. Stayed 3-1 for ages as our defence martialled by Robbie was excellent. Then it was 4-3 to us and things fell apart a bit, probably because we got bored of standing still in the freezing cold, and the defenders drifted a bit. Glen, Chris and some Asian dude named after the singer Beck rolled up. Farhan got Beck, we got the internet contingent. 5-5. 5-6. 6-6. Stayed six all forever, when Zak came along and joined them as well.
Our defence stopped bothering because defending is dull in these sorts of games, so I ran about hacking the shit out of everything that moved, meaning I have a bloodied leg atm. Still put it out for half a million throw ins and corners though, and chested one of the corners perfectly into the path of The Question to let him score.
Soon went 6-9 down and Farhan called for half-time. Twat. Ian called him up on this and we soon trotted off to Spoons for refreshments.
Kopi turned up which was excellent and we had foreign beers, including one served in a Buddha. She and I lost a fortune on the quiz machine, but felt quite proud of ourselves for answering all but the Very Important Question correctly in each game.
Most of the internet then left the pub and we were left with Sophie, Nathan, Question, Samina, Carl, Toby and myself. Chatted about various fascinating things. Eventually everyone fucked off leaving Sophie and me alone to miss the last train from Earl's Court to Richmond/Ealing Broadway and help some French people get to their hotel. Bus to Hammersmith. Got food. Kicked about a bit. Missed a few more buses. She got hers eventually and I found out about twenty minutes later I had no credit on my Oyster for mine. Sent plaintive texts out and Sophie called to keep me company for a bit of the walk home. She'd got home in seconds flat, it seemed. Home an hour later.
Now in bed cuddling up to a friendly bout of cramp. <3
Oh, and song of the day: Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name. Why not mark the day the campaign beat the X-Factor to Xmas #1?
Friday, 18 December 2009
Pipe down.
I didn't manage to update yesterday as I was out for nearly the entire duration of the day. So the song for yesterday can be Babyshambles – Pipedown, for several reasons.
I ended up awake till about eleven, going into uni to hand in essays, then snoozing lightly through a very interesting lecture on Something. After that I went and found myself a room at uni and crashed out for a few hours, waking up only to go and get drunk. Which was the easiest thing I've ever done, given my physical state.
This was for the philosophy social, which was a slightly peculiar affair. Crates of interesting cheap wine and lots of pizza were stacked in a room full of philosophy students and lecturers, creating an atmosphere of slight awkwardness till the liquor truly got flowing.
I had to take a break from the festivities to go and see Babyshambles with a mate, which is where the "pipe down" aspect of the night came into play, in multiple respects. We were quite near the front, and surrounded by utter, utter cunts. To our left were a group of typical football fans, chanting pro-City chants, and generally being ruder than the typically gig-goer. Then they lit up spliffs and started racially abusing one of the security guards, who managed not to kick them out. Directly in front of us were three gnome-lads, gnomes in terms of height and lads in terms of personality. They were hitting on anything that moved, and throwing their arms around our necks, in displays of masculine camaraderie. Then to our right some more lads from Blackburn turned up and began supplying the gnomes with pills and discussing why Asians are inferior with two girls and their mother. I would have no problem with the smoking and the pills if they hadn't been in the hands of racist misogynistic twats. The second support act was excellent, a girl-boy duo from Liverpool who were basically watered down version of The Ting Tings. However, all these guys could do was chant "git yer tits aht" at her, making her extremely nervous. Then they opined that "only the birds are clapping". Sean and I shuffled awkwardly.
When Babyshambles came on at about 10:15, Pete Doherty was excellent. Fuck Forever in particular, was astounding. Various things were thrown into the crowd and back again. If only the cunts at the start could have piped down.
After that we returned to the social and my lecturer drank my vinegar. Good work, Henry.
Since then I've drunk more and slept and feel wonderful. Now to pack for London.
I ended up awake till about eleven, going into uni to hand in essays, then snoozing lightly through a very interesting lecture on Something. After that I went and found myself a room at uni and crashed out for a few hours, waking up only to go and get drunk. Which was the easiest thing I've ever done, given my physical state.
This was for the philosophy social, which was a slightly peculiar affair. Crates of interesting cheap wine and lots of pizza were stacked in a room full of philosophy students and lecturers, creating an atmosphere of slight awkwardness till the liquor truly got flowing.
I had to take a break from the festivities to go and see Babyshambles with a mate, which is where the "pipe down" aspect of the night came into play, in multiple respects. We were quite near the front, and surrounded by utter, utter cunts. To our left were a group of typical football fans, chanting pro-City chants, and generally being ruder than the typically gig-goer. Then they lit up spliffs and started racially abusing one of the security guards, who managed not to kick them out. Directly in front of us were three gnome-lads, gnomes in terms of height and lads in terms of personality. They were hitting on anything that moved, and throwing their arms around our necks, in displays of masculine camaraderie. Then to our right some more lads from Blackburn turned up and began supplying the gnomes with pills and discussing why Asians are inferior with two girls and their mother. I would have no problem with the smoking and the pills if they hadn't been in the hands of racist misogynistic twats. The second support act was excellent, a girl-boy duo from Liverpool who were basically watered down version of The Ting Tings. However, all these guys could do was chant "git yer tits aht" at her, making her extremely nervous. Then they opined that "only the birds are clapping". Sean and I shuffled awkwardly.
When Babyshambles came on at about 10:15, Pete Doherty was excellent. Fuck Forever in particular, was astounding. Various things were thrown into the crowd and back again. If only the cunts at the start could have piped down.
After that we returned to the social and my lecturer drank my vinegar. Good work, Henry.
Since then I've drunk more and slept and feel wonderful. Now to pack for London.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Peel me a grape.
I have decided at this late hour to go mad and never return to sanity. I hope it works. I am currently discussing buffalo with the pineapple juice on the floor. Slay me a piglet for I am bereft of life.
I'm going to tell you a story all about how my life is moving along at a reasonably normal rate.
No I'm not that was a lie.
I'm not TOGO.
I'm going to tell you a story all about how my life is moving along at a reasonably normal rate.
No I'm not that was a lie.
I'm not TOGO.
Togo.
I woke up in a completely faily mess tbh. My phone charger lay in tatters on the floor, I had bruises all over me and for some reason I was huddling myself to a carton of pineapple juice. I turned on The Internet and began to inspect the carnage. It was awful. Liz had posted these photos online, for a start. My phone being out of action I began the trek up to the city centre for a new charger with a lettuce in hand, taking large bites out of it all the while: I was still drunk. I'd even managed to convince myself I was Togo while on the phone at the party. Enough on that.
I'm still writing the essay I never stop mentioning and moaning about, although procrastination has reached new heights. I just went and alphabetised the contents of my fridge.
Today's main source of amusement has been the terrible thread created on the BBC's Have Your Say website, asking people to discuss the Ugandan bill on the death penalty for gays. However, being HYS, full of some of the country's biggest cretins, sitting posting their fetid wankery, the debate descended to depths further than even the Ugandans themselves were probably having.
Gems include:
"No I don’t think that homosexuals should be executed, but neither do I think they should be put on a pedestal either, it is a controversial condition that is regarded with disgust by many heterosexual people which I don’t believe homosexuals fully realise, I think they should be allowed to get on with their own lives but they should respect the sensibilities of heterosexuals."
Yes, you utter tit, they should respect the sensible people advocating their murder.
"The death penalty - no. Just pay more taxes than hetros."
Imagine that bill coming through the post.
“Homosexuality is not natural. It makes me very uncomfortable when you consider what it involves, although the death penalty is probably a little harsh."
Probably.
That's all from me for now, I can't bring myself to continue writing after that utter horror. The song of the day is Xiu Xiu – All We Ever Wanted Was Everything. I don't expect you to like it.
I'm still writing the essay I never stop mentioning and moaning about, although procrastination has reached new heights. I just went and alphabetised the contents of my fridge.
Today's main source of amusement has been the terrible thread created on the BBC's Have Your Say website, asking people to discuss the Ugandan bill on the death penalty for gays. However, being HYS, full of some of the country's biggest cretins, sitting posting their fetid wankery, the debate descended to depths further than even the Ugandans themselves were probably having.
Gems include:
"No I don’t think that homosexuals should be executed, but neither do I think they should be put on a pedestal either, it is a controversial condition that is regarded with disgust by many heterosexual people which I don’t believe homosexuals fully realise, I think they should be allowed to get on with their own lives but they should respect the sensibilities of heterosexuals."
Yes, you utter tit, they should respect the sensible people advocating their murder.
"The death penalty - no. Just pay more taxes than hetros."
Imagine that bill coming through the post.
“Homosexuality is not natural. It makes me very uncomfortable when you consider what it involves, although the death penalty is probably a little harsh."
Probably.
That's all from me for now, I can't bring myself to continue writing after that utter horror. The song of the day is Xiu Xiu – All We Ever Wanted Was Everything. I don't expect you to like it.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
An idea on anthropomorphism. And other stuff.
I'm mainly writing this update for Matthew, who has said that he's interested in an idea I spat out of one of my orifices regarding the idea of God possessing human attributes having been preceded by the idea of God as a human-formed entity.
Essentially, I think that the idea of some greater being preceding the precise characteristics of that being makes perfect sense. First and foremost the idea of a deity would have been spread, and as it developed, becoming a more widely held belief and one to base a religion around, certain ideas about what God is would have been attributed to the deity in question.
To use Christianity as an example, God would have started out as far more basic a concept than he is now, what with the Holy Trinity and whatnot. Perhaps he would have been unrecognisable as the current God of classical theism we have now. Rather than imagining some incomprehensible and superior being in the sky, and calling it God in the way that a pagan or mystic might have done, Christianity or its forefathers would have seen God in the same way as the Greeks saw their gods, essentially human-shaped, but by no means all-powerful.
The Greek idea of a god as an imperfect being was a crucial part of any polytheistic religion, which adapted and evolved as their various gods became one (in some cases) as they were made more perfect in order to be the best gods. Almost all polytheistic gods had somewhat human forms; this was easier for the people of the time to imagine and comprehend. Soon these human-shaped figures had to be given more and more divine qualities, those of omnipotence, omnipresent, and so on. While this happened, due to their human shapes and the images created of them as having human shapes, the human shape of God or the gods became engraved upon the collective psyche of the masses, leading them to leave behind certain human qualities such as emotion, intelligence and consciousness in that deity.
The human form preceded these characteristics in the same was as any physical body precedes the non-physical attributes of any thing we begin to imagine or conjure into existence. It is impossible to comprehend emotion without a body, but very easy to imagine body without emotion. Without meaning to venture into Cartesian rationalism, I bring this up only to point out that one requires the other, namely, human qualities require a physical form. Even if God loses his physical form whilst remaining somehow human-shaped, he, according to anthropomorphism, supposedly retains human qualities.
Enough of that, I don't think it makes much sense and I want to go and get drunk and abandon the remainder of my essay till tomorrow.
In other news, my bag is currently resembling a memory test for the deranged. The artefacts within are:
A bag of melted frozen scampi.
A pot of Lucky Charms cereal, split, pouring everywhere.
A beret.
A pair of socks.
A fork.
A fake used sanitary towel.
Some philosophy.
Add in some false teeth, an unspecifiable bone, several large steaks and the gaseous embodiment of the colour green and you've got quite the lunatic satchel. There's a story behind each of these things, the most (only) interesting ones being the sanitary towel and the scampi. The towel is Liz's, she coloured it in with red pen, brown pen and mascara to give it a genuinely lumpy affect and then we put it in various hilarious locations like a housemate's bed, or stuck to the fridge door. I've been carrying it round ever since taking it out at opportune moments. The scampi was a Secret Santa present.
I haven't really got a great deal to say about today other because my life is desperately unexciting. I tried to use the word "unpresent" as a synonym for "absent" in an essay and my brain is turning into a fine mush.
The song of the day will be Yelle – Mal Poli this time. Most of her songs sound lovely and innocent, but are actually quite the reverse. Google some translations if you like this.
Essentially, I think that the idea of some greater being preceding the precise characteristics of that being makes perfect sense. First and foremost the idea of a deity would have been spread, and as it developed, becoming a more widely held belief and one to base a religion around, certain ideas about what God is would have been attributed to the deity in question.
To use Christianity as an example, God would have started out as far more basic a concept than he is now, what with the Holy Trinity and whatnot. Perhaps he would have been unrecognisable as the current God of classical theism we have now. Rather than imagining some incomprehensible and superior being in the sky, and calling it God in the way that a pagan or mystic might have done, Christianity or its forefathers would have seen God in the same way as the Greeks saw their gods, essentially human-shaped, but by no means all-powerful.
The Greek idea of a god as an imperfect being was a crucial part of any polytheistic religion, which adapted and evolved as their various gods became one (in some cases) as they were made more perfect in order to be the best gods. Almost all polytheistic gods had somewhat human forms; this was easier for the people of the time to imagine and comprehend. Soon these human-shaped figures had to be given more and more divine qualities, those of omnipotence, omnipresent, and so on. While this happened, due to their human shapes and the images created of them as having human shapes, the human shape of God or the gods became engraved upon the collective psyche of the masses, leading them to leave behind certain human qualities such as emotion, intelligence and consciousness in that deity.
The human form preceded these characteristics in the same was as any physical body precedes the non-physical attributes of any thing we begin to imagine or conjure into existence. It is impossible to comprehend emotion without a body, but very easy to imagine body without emotion. Without meaning to venture into Cartesian rationalism, I bring this up only to point out that one requires the other, namely, human qualities require a physical form. Even if God loses his physical form whilst remaining somehow human-shaped, he, according to anthropomorphism, supposedly retains human qualities.
Enough of that, I don't think it makes much sense and I want to go and get drunk and abandon the remainder of my essay till tomorrow.
In other news, my bag is currently resembling a memory test for the deranged. The artefacts within are:
A bag of melted frozen scampi.
A pot of Lucky Charms cereal, split, pouring everywhere.
A beret.
A pair of socks.
A fork.
A fake used sanitary towel.
Some philosophy.
Add in some false teeth, an unspecifiable bone, several large steaks and the gaseous embodiment of the colour green and you've got quite the lunatic satchel. There's a story behind each of these things, the most (only) interesting ones being the sanitary towel and the scampi. The towel is Liz's, she coloured it in with red pen, brown pen and mascara to give it a genuinely lumpy affect and then we put it in various hilarious locations like a housemate's bed, or stuck to the fridge door. I've been carrying it round ever since taking it out at opportune moments. The scampi was a Secret Santa present.
I haven't really got a great deal to say about today other because my life is desperately unexciting. I tried to use the word "unpresent" as a synonym for "absent" in an essay and my brain is turning into a fine mush.
The song of the day will be Yelle – Mal Poli this time. Most of her songs sound lovely and innocent, but are actually quite the reverse. Google some translations if you like this.
Monday, 14 December 2009
Manny's magnificent mistake.
Manny tonight went to a gig in Birmingham. He got on the train all smiles with his sister and was on his way to see Them Crooked Vultures, one of his favourite bands. All the way there he was happy about this and couldn't wait to get into the mosh pit and start dancing about.
Upon arrival of the venue Manny presented his tickets and went in. The first support act came on. It was a bit odd that they were nothing at all like what you might expect to see at a Vultures gig but never mind. The next support act were a similar story, but when the third support act came on at half nine Manny began to suspect something was up! However, he waited it out till 10.45 and when this support act walked off to rapturous applause and the house lights came on as the crowd filed out he realised his mistake! He was at the wrong gig!
Not only did he manage to go to the wrong gig, he went to the wrong venue in the wrong city. Not only did he go to the wrong venue in the wrong city, he didn't have tickets for the correct venue in the correct city. Somehow he hadn't checked this before, during or after the train journey, and hadn't realised upon entering the gig that it was in the wrong place.
He called me at about eleven while running to the station for the last train home to Manchester. Fuck Manny's life.
Upon arrival of the venue Manny presented his tickets and went in. The first support act came on. It was a bit odd that they were nothing at all like what you might expect to see at a Vultures gig but never mind. The next support act were a similar story, but when the third support act came on at half nine Manny began to suspect something was up! However, he waited it out till 10.45 and when this support act walked off to rapturous applause and the house lights came on as the crowd filed out he realised his mistake! He was at the wrong gig!
Not only did he manage to go to the wrong gig, he went to the wrong venue in the wrong city. Not only did he go to the wrong venue in the wrong city, he didn't have tickets for the correct venue in the correct city. Somehow he hadn't checked this before, during or after the train journey, and hadn't realised upon entering the gig that it was in the wrong place.
He called me at about eleven while running to the station for the last train home to Manchester. Fuck Manny's life.
Anthropomorphism.
I've written that word so many times today, it takes the fucking piss. Sometimes when a word comes up that often in an essay and takes a while to type I stick it on copy and paste, but I've been wanging about on the net today copying things left, right and centre so it's probably not a brilliant idea lest I want to end up with this in my essay: "Manchester celebrity spotters: apparently Gok Wan is on Canal Street at the moment." Hmm.
On the subject of anthropomorphism, I really cannot see how the concept of god as a human-formed being came to be. The most common arguments go along the lines of "see that watch, well it's designed innit, so so's the universe because everything needs a designer, and that designer is greater than the designer of the watch, so it's god. Oh, and he's human-formed because he made us in his image." Wat, I say, wat? Are we watch-shaped? Or are we assuming that any deity couldn't have made his people in anything other than his image? That's a bit dense, surely? However, it is the view immediately most obvious to half of theological history so I'd better give it a bit more credit and assume that my brain is dysfunctional or something. Why is it that we feel the need to reinforce our superiority over the rest of the creatures on this planet by giving the one thing apparently superior to ourselves the same shape as us? Had religion come about in this age, and a person had posited the idea of some sort of divine creator (let's ignore all the aspects of theism that make the emergence of this less likely in contemporary times) would we also have given that being a human shape and made him male? To me it seems unlikely. If I talk of some all-powerful being outside of time and space, capable of doing absolutely anything he wants to any race in the universe, I get the picture of some horrifically abstract and bizarre being. Possibly made of blue gas, swirling wrathfully, sucking things into a vortex. The closest I get to anthropomorphism is by describing it using the word "wrathfully". It all makes so little sense to me, but I shall put myself in the mindset of Trogg and imagine that my imagination itself is deficient due to a lack of stimulus. The idea of god as human is completely socially-conditioned - if I talk of the aforementioned creature as God rather than "an all-powerful being outside of time and space" etc etc I do get the immediate picture of some smiling genial white bloke with long brown hair and red robes smiling down on me from a cloud.
What else has gone on today? Not a great deal. I've sat about trying to work out how to write this damn essay without repeating myself constantly, and I do have a very definite plan in my head, I'm just incapable of not being distracted.
I am eating a great deal of food, it's wonderful.
Song of the day: The Long Blondes – Giddy Stratospheres
On the subject of anthropomorphism, I really cannot see how the concept of god as a human-formed being came to be. The most common arguments go along the lines of "see that watch, well it's designed innit, so so's the universe because everything needs a designer, and that designer is greater than the designer of the watch, so it's god. Oh, and he's human-formed because he made us in his image." Wat, I say, wat? Are we watch-shaped? Or are we assuming that any deity couldn't have made his people in anything other than his image? That's a bit dense, surely? However, it is the view immediately most obvious to half of theological history so I'd better give it a bit more credit and assume that my brain is dysfunctional or something. Why is it that we feel the need to reinforce our superiority over the rest of the creatures on this planet by giving the one thing apparently superior to ourselves the same shape as us? Had religion come about in this age, and a person had posited the idea of some sort of divine creator (let's ignore all the aspects of theism that make the emergence of this less likely in contemporary times) would we also have given that being a human shape and made him male? To me it seems unlikely. If I talk of some all-powerful being outside of time and space, capable of doing absolutely anything he wants to any race in the universe, I get the picture of some horrifically abstract and bizarre being. Possibly made of blue gas, swirling wrathfully, sucking things into a vortex. The closest I get to anthropomorphism is by describing it using the word "wrathfully". It all makes so little sense to me, but I shall put myself in the mindset of Trogg and imagine that my imagination itself is deficient due to a lack of stimulus. The idea of god as human is completely socially-conditioned - if I talk of the aforementioned creature as God rather than "an all-powerful being outside of time and space" etc etc I do get the immediate picture of some smiling genial white bloke with long brown hair and red robes smiling down on me from a cloud.
What else has gone on today? Not a great deal. I've sat about trying to work out how to write this damn essay without repeating myself constantly, and I do have a very definite plan in my head, I'm just incapable of not being distracted.
I am eating a great deal of food, it's wonderful.
Song of the day: The Long Blondes – Giddy Stratospheres
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Best of the internet.
In order to assist you in getting off the internet, I'm going to showcase the things from the net you need to look at before doing so, to save you the trouble.
First up is a link to another blog: Extravagant Nonsense. A football-based blog but accessible to anyone really. It's worth going back through some older posts when you're bored and the Neil Warnock watch is pretty crucial.
Next my favourite youtube videos of the moment: Mika's Big Girl remixed by some Belfasters; Brian Butterfield's Diet Plan; the Sex Offender Shuffle and this documentary from the year 3000 about The Beatles.
The comments on this Telegraph article are horrifically predictable...
In this soundclip we meet an incredibly convincing case for the pro-choicers - why do people like this exist?
Also, being bored I've chanced upon a flash game that I actually quite enjoyed - a puzzle game that isn't either so difficult that its owner is sitting in a bath masturbating to the thesaurus in some foul and horrific display of self-satisfaction or so tedious that you give up after placing Object X in Portal Y for the umpteenth time. Here: Red Remover.
I may edit more into this post when I think about it. I may not.
First up is a link to another blog: Extravagant Nonsense. A football-based blog but accessible to anyone really. It's worth going back through some older posts when you're bored and the Neil Warnock watch is pretty crucial.
Next my favourite youtube videos of the moment: Mika's Big Girl remixed by some Belfasters; Brian Butterfield's Diet Plan; the Sex Offender Shuffle and this documentary from the year 3000 about The Beatles.
The comments on this Telegraph article are horrifically predictable...
In this soundclip we meet an incredibly convincing case for the pro-choicers - why do people like this exist?
Also, being bored I've chanced upon a flash game that I actually quite enjoyed - a puzzle game that isn't either so difficult that its owner is sitting in a bath masturbating to the thesaurus in some foul and horrific display of self-satisfaction or so tedious that you give up after placing Object X in Portal Y for the umpteenth time. Here: Red Remover.
I may edit more into this post when I think about it. I may not.
The first entry.
Hello, internet.
This is me deciding that I should start a blog for various reasons which I'll go through now.
I need to write more often and this will happen if my other aims for this blog come into fruition. I want to have something I can at least pretend to be dedicated to and update frequently, also allowing me a place to go back and read and remember my life. That's the long term aim, at any rate. The short term aims involve massive procrastination and a general unwillingness to be on the internet in my usual haunts.
I'm going to try and have a system whereby I have a song of the day (or at least the post...) each time I update as well as other things will I'll hopefully find out and make regular. Now for the transition from the explanatory to the actual content of the blog...
At the moment one of the main things I'm trying to do with myself is move out of the halls I live in at the moment and in with Liz and the rest of her housemates. As a general rule I've never managed to fit in properly here despite having a great room and the presence of Manny down the corridor. The main problem is revolving around finding a replacement for myself to take over the contract here: as soon as I manage to get someone through the door for a viewing I think I'll be fine, but finding someone is proving incredibly difficult. Hopefully sooner or later this will all be resolved, as I'm meant to be having a few people along for a look this coming week.
Other things include being relatively obsessed with the history of antisemitism, which is a bizarre phase, but one that we all go through. I'm taking a break from reading stuff on it at the moment as I've got an essay on Hume to write (ha!), so Hannah Arendt and Steven Beller are taking a back seat. I'm particularly into the idea that antisemitism came about as a direct result of Christian theology's anti-Judaic ideologies along with the Central European attempt of the governmental authorities to integrate Jews into modern society, raising them up from the lower class citizens they were. For many Eastern and Central Europeans this only succeeded in taking an underprivileged minority and moving them to the top of the social hierarchy. Kneejerk reaction was to either posit an irrationalist philosophy or argue along a very modernist racial theory way of thinking. More about this in a further entry, I think.
One of the highlights of this weekend just gone for me was Brentford securing a 0-0 draw with Leeds United. Seriously, who'd have thought that possible ten years ago, especially in a league encounter? Not that we've risen any higher really, they've fallen. But still. Andy Scott comes under a lot of stick for his tactics at Griffin Park but he was spot on yesterday and achieved one of the results of the season, up there with the 1-1 draw with Southampton and the 2-1 win against Norwich. Only four teams have kept Leeds out this season - Southend, Charlton, Liverpool and us. Not a bad group to be in. On a sidenote, Ryan Giggs has just won the Sports Personality of the Year award. What's he done, apart from be old and play for Man U? Even he doesn't really know why he was nominated!
Finally, it's been a great weekend just for seeing people. Had our Xmas dinner on Friday evening and it was quite tasty considering it was all engineered by a microwave technician in the pub. Even the carrots, broccoli and sprouts had had their 3-minute rotation in a Tupperware dish. Free booze. Then went to various other locations with people, had cocktails and ended up turning into a loon in Satan's Hollow. Then yesterday came and people visited Manchester, meaning I spent almost the entirety of the weekend pissed. Nice to see them though. This ranks as one of the best weekends of the term.
Today's song of the day, fitting considering the title of the blog, is Le Tigre – Slideshow At Free University. Youtube it if you don't have Spotify.
This is me deciding that I should start a blog for various reasons which I'll go through now.
I need to write more often and this will happen if my other aims for this blog come into fruition. I want to have something I can at least pretend to be dedicated to and update frequently, also allowing me a place to go back and read and remember my life. That's the long term aim, at any rate. The short term aims involve massive procrastination and a general unwillingness to be on the internet in my usual haunts.
I'm going to try and have a system whereby I have a song of the day (or at least the post...) each time I update as well as other things will I'll hopefully find out and make regular. Now for the transition from the explanatory to the actual content of the blog...
At the moment one of the main things I'm trying to do with myself is move out of the halls I live in at the moment and in with Liz and the rest of her housemates. As a general rule I've never managed to fit in properly here despite having a great room and the presence of Manny down the corridor. The main problem is revolving around finding a replacement for myself to take over the contract here: as soon as I manage to get someone through the door for a viewing I think I'll be fine, but finding someone is proving incredibly difficult. Hopefully sooner or later this will all be resolved, as I'm meant to be having a few people along for a look this coming week.
Other things include being relatively obsessed with the history of antisemitism, which is a bizarre phase, but one that we all go through. I'm taking a break from reading stuff on it at the moment as I've got an essay on Hume to write (ha!), so Hannah Arendt and Steven Beller are taking a back seat. I'm particularly into the idea that antisemitism came about as a direct result of Christian theology's anti-Judaic ideologies along with the Central European attempt of the governmental authorities to integrate Jews into modern society, raising them up from the lower class citizens they were. For many Eastern and Central Europeans this only succeeded in taking an underprivileged minority and moving them to the top of the social hierarchy. Kneejerk reaction was to either posit an irrationalist philosophy or argue along a very modernist racial theory way of thinking. More about this in a further entry, I think.
One of the highlights of this weekend just gone for me was Brentford securing a 0-0 draw with Leeds United. Seriously, who'd have thought that possible ten years ago, especially in a league encounter? Not that we've risen any higher really, they've fallen. But still. Andy Scott comes under a lot of stick for his tactics at Griffin Park but he was spot on yesterday and achieved one of the results of the season, up there with the 1-1 draw with Southampton and the 2-1 win against Norwich. Only four teams have kept Leeds out this season - Southend, Charlton, Liverpool and us. Not a bad group to be in. On a sidenote, Ryan Giggs has just won the Sports Personality of the Year award. What's he done, apart from be old and play for Man U? Even he doesn't really know why he was nominated!
Finally, it's been a great weekend just for seeing people. Had our Xmas dinner on Friday evening and it was quite tasty considering it was all engineered by a microwave technician in the pub. Even the carrots, broccoli and sprouts had had their 3-minute rotation in a Tupperware dish. Free booze. Then went to various other locations with people, had cocktails and ended up turning into a loon in Satan's Hollow. Then yesterday came and people visited Manchester, meaning I spent almost the entirety of the weekend pissed. Nice to see them though. This ranks as one of the best weekends of the term.
Today's song of the day, fitting considering the title of the blog, is Le Tigre – Slideshow At Free University. Youtube it if you don't have Spotify.
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